Game Preview Canucks vs. Hurricanes: Time to Raleigh Back

The Date; December 1st. The City; Raleigh, North Carolina. The Time; 10 am (pst). Be there.

Fresh off the loss in New York, the Canucks got right on a plane, and after an hour and a half of cocktail peanuts and Tortella yell-speaking, landed in North Carolina for another 10 AM morning matinee against the Carolina Hurricanes. Halfway through their four-game road trip the Canucks have broken even so far with a win and a loss. Early games are always a concern for me and I still have images of Luongo’s groin injury in Pittsburgh in 2008 dancing in my head.

With Luongo starting – and getting pulled – against the Rangers, expect to see Swede Eddie Lack in net for the Canucks. Lack has only played in 6 games this season (started 4 games), but does have a respectable 0.906% save percentage.

Who’s Hot

This week the streaking Sedin is… Daniel! With 3 goals and 5 assists in 5 games, he seems to have regained some confidence. Somewhat surprisingly, David Booth is another streaking Canuck with 3 points, including goals in back-to-back games, in his last 2 games.

On the opposite end of the ice, the Hurricanes are getting a lot of offensive support from defenseman Andrej Sekera, who has 3 goals and 2 assists in his past 4 games. That being said, Sekera missed the game Friday and did not practice with the team Saturday. He’s unlikely to play but we won’t know for sure until game time. The Hurricanes’ captain will definitely be playing Sunday though. Eric Staal had 10 points in 14 November games.

Who’s Out

For the Canucks Jordan Schroeder remains out with his sprained ankle. For the Hurricanes, Andrej Sekera, Tim Gleason and Anton Khudobin are all expected not to play. Alexander Semin also remains sidelined with a concussion.

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Canucks Hockey Blog is a blog containing podcasts, opinions and commentary on the Vancouver Canucks and the NHL.
First established by J.J. Guerrero in 2005, CHB features regular contributions from Christopher Golden, Matt Lee, Clay Imoo, Elizabeth Moffat, Jocelyn Aspa, Victoria Pattison-Denault and various other contributors.